Elinor Kennedy Jackson

On a beautiful April 12th spring day 2023, Elinor Kennedy Jackson said she would get better and “see you later”. However, the pulmonary embolisms took hold and she passed on sunny April 13th in Zanesville, OH to join her husband Albert H. Jackson, whom she most dearly missed and spoke of with longing just one month earlier. They married in White Plains, NY on June 14, 1952 having met at NYU. Elinor loved her life and lived exactly as she wanted, as a devoted family matriarch, strong-willed wife and mother, and youngest sibling to her three brothers and one sister. She was the daughter of John Francis Kennedy and Mary Appleget Kennedy Allen.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Albert Henry Jackson (1998), all her siblings and eleven in-laws leaving her the last of the family’s generation; and granddaughter, Christina Jackson. She is survived by the seven children she raised to feel accomplished in their own lives: Mary Anne D’Onofrio (Joseph), Albert Jackson (Mary Ann), Robert Jackson (Cathy), Jonathan Jackson (Janet), Edward Jackson (Denise), David Jackson (Janet), Laura Weygandt. She was blessed with 12 grandchildren: Kathleen, Joseph, Maureen, Christina(d), Nathan, Stephanie, Brian, Peter, Patrick, Alexander, Nicholas, Valerie and 7 great-grandchildren, with more on the way. She is also survived by an entire clan of Kennedy and Jackson nieces and nephews.

Elinor ran the family households with her children reluctantly doing assigned chores, while she prepared dinners daily for nine, sewed clothes, rounded up all for Sunday mass, nursed ill children, and still found time to enjoy bridge with her husband, help with homework, and play board or card games with the family. Later she volunteered at “the second-hand store”, read to children in school, enjoyed gardening and shared time with neighbor friends. In stores and in public, she greeted everyone she met, and surprised others who believed she was much younger than her years.

Elinor loved her nomadic life of moving the family from state to state every few years for her husband’s work, exploring our great country as if on an adventure vacation. She hailed as a descendant of American Revolutionary heroes; the financier of the American Revolution and signer of the US Constitution, Robert Morris; various statesmen; her Irish roots in the Kennedy family; and the many strong independent women before her. She treasured her friends. She moved out of her Upper Arlington home and was welcomed to live in Frazeysburg with her son and his wife, Albert and Mary Ann. She appreciated others who cared for her including Patricia Cunningham and the people at Clay Gardens in Zanesville.

Elinor will be missed by the many family members and friends whose lives she made better in having known her.

Visitation will be held 4-7 p.m. Thursday, April 20, 2023 at Schoedinger Northeast, 1051 E. Johnstown Rd., Gahanna, Ohio, 43230. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 10:30 a.m. Friday, April 21, 2023 at St. Timothy Catholic Church, 1088 Thomas Ln, Columbus, OH 43220. Interment will follow at at Resurrection Cemetery.

Visit www.schoedinger.com to share a special memory or extend condolences.